Helldivers 2’s new DSS isn’t working out

The Democracy Space Station was one of the most exciting new developments in Helldivers 2‘s ongoing galactic war. A potent semi-mobile enhancement platform that can buff Helldivers wherever they go sure sounds great, but it’s a bit of a wet noodle in practice. Worse, even, as it’s downright punishing.

As the DSS was slowly ramping up its engines and the community invested heaps of resources into it, the expectation was that it would massively improve our combat efforts on whichever front it was deployed on. Well… the truth is a tad more complicated than that. Not only is using the DSS a heck of an effort in its own right, but the effects are also substantially less useful than we hoped they would be. From the look of things, the DSS doesn’t add bonus Stratagem deployments or some manner of passive buffs to the players’ stats. Instead, it effectively carpet-bombs the entire map all at once.

The Democracy Space Station is going to need a rework, stat

Now, we’ll obviously have to wait and see how the remainder of the Democracy Space Station’s Actions work out, but the Orbital Barrage is genuinely problematic in practice. It looks like the effect of the Orbital Barrage is roughly equivalent to that of an omnipresent 380MM explosive Stratagem, except it’s applied to a whole level, leading to unpredictable ragdolling and, indeed, deaths.

The bit that is wholly predictable is the players’ response to this fumble: they are deeply unhappy with what’s been delivered. The DSS has been the single focal point of every Major Order for weeks now, and to have the feature be downright detrimental to the players’ efforts is demoralizing, to say the least.

Also predictable is the fact that Helldivers 2 is coping with this development via some delightfully spicy memes. Certainly, Arrowhead Games has managed to successfully turn things around and bring the game back to its launch-day glory. Yet, if the DSS doesn’t get massively recalibrated to become a potent tool in the Super Earth’s arsenal, this whole thing will become yet another mar on what could otherwise be a wonderful live-service experience.

For what it’s worth, I’ve got no doubt that Arrowhead will somehow revamp the DSS at some point in the near future. As it currently stands, playing missions with a DSS Action running is almost impossible unless you’re really lucky with how the 380MM bombardment is dished out, and that’s no way to play the game. We’ll just have to stick with the darned thing until appropriate calibrations are made.

And, on that note, I do have to praise Arrowhead for no longer making the same kinds of mistakes the team’s been making since the Magicka days. Something like the DSS could never have been shipped in its current form back in the day, not even in the original Helldivers, so the effort is certainly praiseworthy. It’s just going to take a bit more time for it to be anything less than actively detrimental to the playerbase.